CNN Millennium
​The 18th Century (1701-1800 CE): The Furnace

​​The eighteenth century was the "century of the furnace" in a dual sense: the furnace of proto-industrial technology glowed brightly in China, India, and the West, and the furnace of political revolution set off sparks as well. New ways of thinking strengthened and disrupted Europe, while the American Revolution strained ties across the Atlantic between Europe and the colonies. India textile exports thrived, with thousands of workers mass-producing cotton, tea, and silk. However, by the middle of the century, the British East India company began its conquest of India-Britain was beginning to claim these riches. China, also confident about its economic prosperity, colonized new territories to the north and west.

In the eighteenth century, two parts of the globe were seething with energy and change. In the West-in Europe and the Americas-adventurous expeditions struck out to remote corners of the world. New ways of thought based on the Enlightenment inspired revolutions that empowered the middle class. Nowhere was the empowerment of the common man more evident that in the West's growing appetite for goods on a mass scale. In the East, both India and China enjoyed the prosperity derived from their roles as producers and exporters. Textiles and spices from India and porcelain and tea from China moved west and both countries profited by this exchange. However, by the end of the century these states would be eclipsed by the productive power of European factories and by the colonial overlordships imposed by European states. In the nineteenth century, East and West would experience a different set of relationships in the context of a different world dynamic. 

CNN Millennium
​The 19th Century (1801-1900 CE): The Machine

​Industrialization altered the world's balance of power in the nineteenth century. During the "century of the machine," Western powers established world empires by means of technological superiority and became more powerful than the big-sister civilizations of China, Islam, and India. Other cultures tried to resist the influence of the industrial powers but ultimately failed, losing ground to new modes of living.

The machine was truly a new phenomenon in world history, wedding science and technology. Until the nineteenth century, science had been closely tied to religion and practiced by many societies in the abstract, while technology was a continuum of ever-improved tool-making. But when science was applied directly to the creation of practical tools, the results were astounding. Western Europe, building on its own classical heritage and that of Islamic, Chinese, and Indian science, pioneered the application of scientific rationalism to mechanical creations. The result was a revolution in which the source of productive power was transferred from man to machine. The steam engine, one of a series of new power sources, gave economic, political, and social power to those who possessed its mechanical secrets. In this way, Western Europeans began to dominate the Americas, and also Asia and Africa. This domination was not just physical, in the form of empires, but extended to world-view and religion. Europe spread the belief that the development of science and technology was equivalent to human progress and enlightenment. Despite these imperial over tones, science and technological achievements have proven irresistible to most people the world over, perhaps due to the promise of better living conditions.